CRIMINAL incidents numbers skyrocketed across the Gannawarra Shire last year, a Crime Statistics Agency report showing a 40 per cent increase in incidents.
The total number of criminal incidents across the region grew by almost 200 in 2023, from 498 to 697, with almost two-thirds of the incidents occurring within Kerang.
A similar increase was shown in the total number of offences recorded in the area, up 23.8 per cent from 804 offences in 2022 to 995 last year.
Cohuna saw a drop in the number of criminal incidents from 104 to 97, while Leitchville, Koondrook and Dingwall all saw increases; the latter up to 14 incidents from zero in 2022.
The increase follows a similar upwards trend of crime across the state.
The criminal incident rate for Gannawarra was 6,656 per 100,000 people compared to the Victorian state rate of 5,672.7 per 100,000 people.
Charges were laid in 42.8 per cent of the region’s criminal incidents, while 34.4 per cent remain unsolved.
Speaking at a press conference last week, Victoria Police deputy commissioner Neal Paterson said the COVID-19 restrictions still played a part in the increase.
“(The release) represents the first time since early 2020 that the two most recent periods of crime statistics have been unaffected by COVID restrictions,” he said.
“However, it is important to acknowledge that while there were no restrictions in place through 2022, society has taken a while to return to a level of normality.
“We’ve indeed seen that in crime statistics slowly rising over that period of time as well, instead of snapping back.
“Overall, crime in Victoria remains 2.3 per cent below the crime rates in the 2019 calendar year.”
There was close to a doubling in the most common offence, the breach of family violence orders from 38 to 71, while the rate of theft also grew from 43 incidents to 70 last year.
Criminal damage remained steady at 68 offences, while non-residential burglary increased from 22 to 36 incidents.
A large jump of 58.5 per cent was seen in the number of incidents that included an offender, from 258 in 2022 to 409.
Offenders aged over 45 committed 106 of those incidents, while 67 incidents included an offender aged between 25-29, and 45 of the incidents involved minors aged between 10 and 17.
The number of incidents involving those aged between 10 and 17 grew from 28 in 2022 to 45 last year.
Mr Paterson said the state saw an increase of 28.3 per cent in the number of children committing crimes.
“That’s a significant increase, one that concerns us,” he said.
“Some of the largest increases are for crimes like aggravated robbery, theft of motor car, theft from retail store, common assault and aggravated burglary.
“Indeed, when we start to look at our 10 and 11-year-olds, since last year crime committed by 10 and 11-year-olds has risen by 65.4 per cent.
“While that is a smaller offending cohort, there is still some serious and significant offending there.”
Kerang police were contacted for comment.
